u.s. congress votes to pull the economy from the brink of sliding back into recession by approving a bill that prevents the country going over the fiscal cliff. mass conversion to islam and the u.k.'s official religion facing extinction some experts question whether it's time for britain to become a secular state. and with a shaky cease fire with israel in place palestinian farmers in gaza have moved from land to route hoping for a safer place to grow their projects and near the front line.

it is one pm in the russian capital you're watching r t with me marina joshie the u.s. house of representatives has approved a controversial bill designed to prevent the country from potentially sliding back into recession the fiscal cliff deal passed earlier by the senate will prevent nationwide tax hikes and spending cuts from coming into force at least for the time being the house republicans wanted to man the bill but then decided they didn't have enough support to make last minute changes to the motion the tug of war over the text revolved around a democrat promoted increase in income tax for the rich for the first time in two decades but alice lawrence freeman sassed that in the long run this billboard make wife any easier for millions of struggling americans. considering and anyway this whole operation i have been a manipulation. and

a farce to work over the minds of the american population degrade there is no nothing in the book bozos that any way shape or form will actually help the economy what we're seeing right now government twenty seven million people unemployed and missing for a get forty nine point seven million people living in poverty you have tens of millions of people going to bread line to get their food so this question of the big global economy and the wealth of the population is not a good little for nothing it's going to be resolved we're going aggressively to change the whole by means of system so that with the goal separation of the banks now will lead them to death obama is delivering nothing good for the american people says it will accomplish that much that you raise a few but then when taxes on wealthy people i don't find that the states and seem credible get tax question is a bogus issue the question is what kind of credit are you going to make available

for investing in infrastructure in jobs in energy rebuilding new york new jersey the providing people with jobs so they can bring home money with made their families those are the foozle flats and hand in hand with the british monarchy the church of england has been a symbol of the u.k. for centuries and while the church still enjoys man a unique political and financial privileges its current state is less than secure as artie's folly boyko found out. one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world with one official state religion to some it's a paradox but i think any institute any faith institution like the church of england is going to have some potential threats on the horizon and those threats on the horizon are basically around its relevance to communities in general other faiths are significantly growing in their population but the voice in

a social and political level so it's really important to have a plurality of opinion rather than just focus on one institution as being reflective of the nation yet the national church has twenty six on the elected members in the house of lords the upper house of britain's parliament and it enjoys financial privileges courtesy of the u.k. taxpayer by the church's own admission the number of people coming through the doors of this and every other church in england has hard over the past forty years the very same report even warns that in the longer term the established religion faces fading away to virtual envelopment twenty anglican churches just like this one being closed down for worship each year entrepreneurial property developers a snapping them up and converting them to luxury housing or even light clubs while the number of church goers in the u.k. continues to fall some one hundred thousand britons have converted to islam over

the past decade three quarters of those white women as you know broaden my knowledge about islam and compared with christianity i must tell you i found a more logical you know i just resonates with me i like what the prince of wales but he wants to be if ever he becomes king he wants to be the leader of faith you know of all faiths but i think there's a wonderful statement because certainly our society here in britain is very multi-core. very multi-faith so everybody should be included while other faiths enjoy popularity the church of england's recent rejection of women bishops and disapproval of gay marriage has reignited the age old debate on the separation of church and state people feel alienated if they're not part of that church and so few people are because only two percent go to church on a normal sunday so that's why we must i think make sure that the church

is disestablished in the twenty six bishops that votes in the house of lords the only country in the world to have a parliament where they have the right to do that should be extinguished britain now has one of the lowest rates of church attendance in europe there is a rule. in terms of religious opinions there is and that will grow and that future may actually become wider as time goes on and so i guess what we have today is is the church effectively being relevant to certain parts of this country despite centuries of tradition some question what will be left of the church of england in fifty years time oh the statistics are very clear very clear almost disappeared with something i think the twenty fifty figures are one hundred thousand people in the pews on an average sunday out of

a population of sixty million that's miniscule but the privileges and political influence afforded to it are far from trivial and that's what's fuelling the cause of those who say that it's fairer to separate the church from the state party boy r t london. iran has taken on the six month presidency of the european council marking forty years of the e.u. membership prime minister and a canny has pledged to bring the republic's vast experience of coping with financial difficulties to the table while focusing on the e.u.'s economic recovery alice robert oulds earlier told my colleague carrie johnson it may prove to be a tough task for the celtic tiger one of the key challenges facing many countries in europe is of course the economic difficulties. is of course rigidly sticking to the austerity drive which the european union wants which it mandating arlan to do

it's effectively running its budget policies in many different areas amount of money that it can be constrained to deal with the deficit but of course arlen's medicine that they're taking and partly suffering from but they're getting on with it isn't really vied for the rest of europe so if they're going to be driving forward the agenda in the european union for the next six months that's not the. economic problems but let me ask you this i mean this coming year twenty thirty in the e.u. has come up with something called the european year of citizens to essentially highlight the rights people have because they're in the e.u. what do you make of that one of the key words that people should have is a via to elect their own governments and for that to actually make a real difference but of course with the european union power has become too centralized amongst the institutions in brussels and that just takes away power from ordinary citizens so the european union can tell us why it's that we have but of course we don't actually have the violet to make

a real difference of elections because far too many decisions now are made the supranational level made of decisions being made in brussels away from the citizens whether they be the citizens of britain or spain or greece for that matter ok but what you are going to be restored but were there any success stories in twenty twelve must have been something i mean after all the country is predicted to have collapsed by now still surviving. well course unemployment continues to go up at that for the states within the euro zone that very alarming and their economic problems will not be resolved until of course it's recognize that the euro the single currency is the government see for these countries really we need to have a back of powers away from brussels to all the different member states and of course britain should of course have its own referendum on our membership as well and have our own say but it needs to be recognised that the european union is of course failing economically so it still is still there it still exists but the

price of people are paying is of course no economic growth and of course massively high unemployment which is now reaching alarming proportions for many different eurozone states. well how take a look at some other stories from around the world including the silent killer that lies dormant for decades. with the disease that i understand can kill you and we find out how some veterans who of the nine hundred sixty sexual revolution in california deal with the threat of hepatitis c. and why health officials they are rail arm bells over it. floods the rich takings from a rooftop farms people in gaza hit the tiles to graze crops on top of their houses and so israel to security tight around the strip all that after a short break don't go away.

from. the ocean too much brighter than if you knew me bounced from phones to pressure in some. ways for instance on t.v. don't come. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so please you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you

thought you knew you don't know i'm charged welcome to the big picture. hello and welcome back this is r.t. coming to life from moscow with israel easing restrictions to allow building materials into gaza the nation's blockade of the strip still affects those who live there one group bearing the brunt of the restriction are farmers many of whom had to leave their land to the buffer zones to grow food on rooftops but as policy here in their reports with the recent assault on gaza still fresh in the memory some fear they may not see their next harvest. there's not a lot of greenery in gaza at least not in the places you'd expect to find it like abu hafs arms farm which since the israel gaza war four years ago has laid

a barren and deserted. look to you again or had a very nice plantation a lot of visitors came to see it also students from the farming school used to come and study at my place. but workers from israel raining down on one of the most densely populated spots on earth meant i will have needed to find another place where he could grow his crops and so he looked towards his own home and upwards that. i needed no alternative so i made this plantation on the roof and started working again. creates a lot of things if he has time and energy i can make fifty thousand suppling from these centimeters on the roof. it's an idea that's taken root in farms along the gaza israel border where much of the agriculture has been repeatedly destroyed by the israeli army many farmers are unable to access the land because of the buffer zone that's one of at least a third of gaza's farmland your. today there is no

space to have a farm in gaza it is very crowded everybody is building new houses where i stand now used to be a plantation for oranges and lemons and if you look at it now you just see buildings. fall out of five people in gaza are dependent on food aid homegrown food projects like rooftop gardens can help combat christian and severe poverty by allowing farmers to sell their produce marry anyone can do it i work with my husband and my daughters till midnight is that half a lot of farming should be on the ground but we heard that we can plant in volcanic rock on our roofs so i tried it. farmers grow wheat and a variety of fruits and nuts on these rooftops they also raise rabbits and chickens showing how the little ingenuity can go a long way ask anyone in israel or gaza whether they think the situation is stable and they'll tell you it's only

a matter of time before the next israel gaza showdown they might be a ceasefire in place between the two sides but no one believes it will hold least of all the gaza farm is always the first in the line of fire. on the israel gaza border why now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world in syria fresh firings being reported between loyalist and rebels in the second city of aleppo and in the capital aleppo international airport zonder militancy while insurgent positions in the suburbs of damascus are reportedly being shelled this comes after anti-government activists claim dozens of bodies bearing signs of torture were discovered in the capital it's not clear who's responsible for the election frosty the violence continues despite a stark warning from the top international peace envoy to syria who says the country faces the choice of political process or hell. and authorities in the ivory coast have declared three days of warning after

a stamp used during new year's celebrations claimed the lives of over sixty people the tragedy occurred when a large crowd was leaving a city stadium after a fireworks show a similar incident happened in and goa during new year's festivities leaving ten dead and one hundred twenty injured. at least four people have been killed and dozens wounded after an explosion in a crowded area of pakistan southern city of karachi police say the bomb was planted on a motorbike and detonated when a political rally of the city's dominant party passed by no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the liberal party but police suspected militants might have targeted the rally prior to upcoming general elections. but as well as leader which obvious is conscious following a cancer operation in cuba that's according to the country's vice president nicolas maduro however stressed he stressed the president's condition remains delicate and

it was earlier reported that chavis was suffering complications caused by a respiratory infection under the constitution of the socialist president is due to be sworn in for a third term in january the tanf. dubbed the silent killer health officials in the u.s. are calling for all baby boomers to be checked for hepatitis c. disease that's becoming increasingly prevalent with age group as artie's medina caution of ford's decades after their summer of love many in california fear they'll have to pay for their or even mystic lifestyle. california the sunshine state once the center of the hippie revolution and melting pot of music rock sounds actual freedom we did drugs that we didn't think about there was no thought process because everybody was doing it dean mitchell is

a baby boomer born during the pos to world war two years nineteen forty six and nine hundred sixty five his generation now is paying for that lifestyle a life of things drugs and rock'n'roll all fueled by flower power and the summer of love they say few remember the sixty's you were intrigued there the baby boomers out of the sexual revolution may have lost some of their memories and they had the mists of time but there is one legacy of their past which is anything but harmless the centers for disease control has already named him patatas c s n and recognized health crisis according to their grannies ation current he won in thirty baby boomers are in fact it with the virus the silent killer it can lie dormant for decades that's what happened to dean mitchell's friend who died just two months after being diagnosed with the disease they're paying for the car consequences because they are now sick. they have to get medication. and it's

a disease that i understand can kill you but worst of all it's not just baby boomers who are trysts many could have a knowing if you contract the virus through blood transfusions screening was only improved during the aids crisis in the ninety's californian's bay area has been the hardest hit with more people dying here than anywhere else in the country it is also a very costly problem for the bankrupt state costing billions of dollars last year . all four of them had told me when. it enters their information the folks who are insured in a certain system working person will soon start. forcing him or him or are going to see what the. initial results of this engineering for more widespread than h i v have to tidy kills

around twelve thousand people in the us after a year and with the baby boomers in the highest risk group the center for disease control has called for mass screening they say they could identify almost a million people now living with the disease and saves may need more lives but the question remains if the present generation will listen to the question archie reporting from los angeles california. on our web site following the brutal gang rape that should delhi to the core hundreds of in the in a women apply for a firearm licenses and join self-defense classes. plus every word reveals a number of japanese nuclear plants are ill equipped to deal with fire is threatening to set back their we activation of the country's nuclear stations by years log on to r.t. dot com to find out more. space has fascinated generations

as a scientific mystery but have you ever consider going into orbit for your next holiday while it appears manic people have an earlier r t talk to eric anderson a space entrepreneur about the part of the private orbital travel has played in space exploration the full interview is on air at six forty five pm g.m.t. but here is a quick preview. based tourism honestly is not a great word for what these people do when they participate as private citizens going to the space station every single one of them who's flown with space adventures to the space station has had an in-depth scientific program whether it was material science or biological experiments or whatever it was they have participated they have paid their own way of course they have used themselves as part of the scientific community that many of them have gone to space with less than perfect health and have been great examples of how for example laser surgery

on your eyes is affected by space flight they all want to participate in this they are participating and the fact of the matter is quite honestly when private citizens go to the space station a lot more people hear about the space station than otherwise it's just one of those things that they captures the public's attention part of nasa is mission is to encourage to the maximum extent possible the commercial use of space and in fact showing that there's a market showing that there are people willing to do this and showing that you don't have to be a career military fighter pilot the right stuff kind of person that plays a huge role and i think that's exactly the sort of thing that ends up helping the space agencies of the world as well. russian politics saw at ground zero and return for a lot of important fresh anti-government protests in two thousand and twelve although we number is smaller than the year before arty's political analyst watch

developments in the heart of the rallies and he told my colleagues kevin allen and any so now we earlier how he sees the protest mood in russia panning out. i would say it's kind of bleak but not hopeless ok we didn't come up with any new ideas new organization new faces and if pussy riot is that we are of the opposition that's pretty dreadful situation for the russian people and political development in general here and there's there was political change in this country in a positive change who does make up the opposition as we head into the it's a very interesting question because i have gone to most of the major demonstrations and there were people there of goodwill in my opinion but then there were fascists there ok who were communists there i mean these are people they're ok and it's your right to demonstrate also for the actually of life we had here but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they have no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like but a mere putin which is not a very it's not a political agenda there were

a few protests which i was at as well where it did seem like that was the method if you wanted to gain traction on this opposition movement do you see people coming out and take the train lost a lot of its novelty effect right now ok because political change takes leaders in the years and years that have to be local this is what happens in political changes with countries that were what they were carrying at one time it takes a long time to get people involved in the process and that is happening very very strongly there are some people that want to really fast and they don't want to do it through elections they want power because they want power because they believe they deserve it and what about the fact that we're not going to see any presidential elections of course that all led up to being elected a third term this protest and now they're kind of when i'm down now oh i would say to people i mean if you want to continue to protest in but you know join a political party there are forty four of them now you have a choice ok get involved see one of the things i saw with a lot of the protesters is that they want someone else to do all the hard work they

want to go out and wave a flag and say you know give out a slogan we don't want to do the hard nitty gritty work of political change and that's what they need to do. well peter labor has been dissecting russian on global politics and his cross talk series throughout the past twelve months in r.t. dot com has plenty of editions of the show for you to watch on demand meanwhile don't miss the latest episode of cross talk coming your way after this short break stay with us. i never thought i could earn a living messmate. natale a show of oil as a lawyer should test small arms so those photos to machine building plant not are the source to count of all the weapons she's fired over the past twelve years. i

got so used to it sometimes my friends ask me to join them at the rifle range and i say no way i'm so tired of shooting. the planet's history goes from making firearms during world war two to ballistic missiles from nuclear submarines during the cold war the bulk of the soviet industry was moved here in the 1940's to flee the advancing germans so it's here also became the heart of soviet military production closed off to foreigners for half a century it thrived on the massive moods of the soviet military when the u.s.s.r. collapsed but life here was shaken to the core but some adapted to better than others. this is the year old truck factory brushes number one of the truck made for grabs a look at how well the workplace is organized everything's done to make sure the workers don't waste time waiting there was so production is booming the factory has largely managed to get on to civil rails these giants are sold around the globe hit

a base of brand new breeds now waiting to be delivered to acquire seventy trucks like this once roll up the block. conveyor belt every day slogan about this things that absolutely huge. well i'm no formula one pilot but hopefully if i can get up that. i can go for a test drive. well that was fun so should get one of these to travel to whatever in the morning was with a cost of about forty thousand dollars i should start saving my. sleep

. sleep. sleep sleep. sleep . the only thing.

is. low and welcome the crosstalk i'm peter lavelle out with the old in with the new with the arrival of two thousand and thirteen what can we expect will the global economy continue on its slow pace of recovery or is there another crisis in the cards well western powers in israel finally decide to attack iran will the world come together to deal with extreme weather and will america see another horrific year of mass murders. across our predictions for two thousand and thirteen i'm joined by john glaser in washington he's an assistant editor and blogger for antiwar dot com in san francisco we have will durst he is a political comic and syndicated columnist and in paris we cross the analysts a bit more she is a journalist and political commentator right cross talk rule.